World Customs Organization (WCO)

The World Customs Organization (WCO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, that develops rules on customs procedures, provides technical assistance to Member States, classifies goods for the application of tariffs, and drafts standards and holds conferences to strengthen IPR enforcement.

S.E.C.U.R.E.

At its June 2006 Council sessions, WCO Member States approved the S.E.C.U.R.E. standard (provisional Standards to be Employed by Customs for Uniform Rights Enforcement), to coordinate a “global effort to suppress all kind of intellectual property rights infringements.”

S.E.C.U.R.E. instructs Member States to make use of other WCO tools for the suppression of counterfeiting and piracy, including the WCO Model IPR Legislation, which contains provisions for, among other things, examination of goods by rights holders, compensation in the case of wrongful detention of goods, the duration of Customs surveillance over suspected infringements, and the provision of information, including evidence of right ownership and the grounds for suspicion.

Goverment Documents

Text of the S.E.C.U.R.E. standard for IPR enforcement through customs is available here.